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However, the terms rūh (spirit) and nafs (soul or self) are used to convey several meanings. Rūh may mean the air exhaled from the body and the air inhaled into it. It may also mean the vapour that emerges from the heart’s cavity, from its innermost part, and flows through the blood vessels. This is what physicians call the spirit, also known as the vital spirit. Both these meanings are distinct from the spirit that departs at death, which is the soul.

The nafs of a thing may also mean the thing itself, its very identity, as when one says, “I saw Zayd himself, in person.” Allah Most High says:

“You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within Yourself.”

He also says:

“Your Lord has prescribed mercy for Himself.”

And He Most High says:

“Allah warns you of Himself.”

An authentic hadith relates that he said to the Mother of the Believers:

“Since leaving you, I have said four phrases which, if weighed against what you have said, would counterbalance it: Glory be to Allah, as numerous as His creation; glory be to Allah, as weighty as His Throne; glory be to Allah, to the extent of His own pleasure; glory be to Allah, as abundant as the ink of His words.”

In an authentic divine hadith reported from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“Allah Most High says: ‘I am as My servant thinks of Me, and I am with him when he remembers Me. If he remembers Me within himself, I remember him within Myself; and if he remembers Me in an assembly, I remember him in an assembly better than that one.’”

In these passages, according to the majority of scholars, what is meant by the term nafs is Allah Himself